Sweet Diversity: Colonial Goods and the Welfare Gains from Global Trade after 1492

Jonathan Hersh; Hans-Joachim Voth

doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2022.101468

← All publications

Sweet Diversity: Colonial Goods and the Welfare Gains from Global Trade after 1492

Jonathan Hersh, Hans-Joachim Voth

Explorations in Economic History 86, pp. 101468 (2022)

Published version PDF VoxEU Data

Abstract

When did overseas trade start to matter for living standards? Traditional real-wage indices suggest that living standards in Europe stagnated before 1800. In this paper, we argue that welfare may have actually risen substantially, but surreptitiously, because of an influx of new goods.

Keywords: trade, welfare gains, colonial goods, living standards, new goods
DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2022.101468
Canonical: https://www.jvoth.com/papers/sweet-diversity.html

Jonathan Hersh, Hans-Joachim Voth (2022). “Sweet Diversity: Colonial Goods and the Welfare Gains from Global Trade after 1492.” Explorations in Economic History.